Robert McKinley, Senior Analyst/Editor
Robert McKinley is an analyst of the payments industry on a daily basis for 32 years covering payment cards and payment systems from both the business side and the consumer side. McKinley is the retired founder and chief executive of RAM Research, CardWeb and CardTrak. In his prior position, McKinley has participated in more than 10,000 documented news media interviews, testified as an expert witness in two separate $billion+ U.S. anti-trust trials, testified before the U.S. Congress, assisted the GAO with paymentsIMG_2006 (1).jpeg reports, chaired numerous business conferences and provided C-Suite opinion to a multitude of Fortune 500 companies. In retirement, he has continued developing and funding digital media assets as well as contributing payments related analysis/content to a broad list of online publishers, including CardFlash, CardTrak and CardData. McKinley is also a national certified mentor with the non-profit SCORE organization with a focus on assisting Fintech startups. www.robert-mckinley.com

[ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”0″ ihc_mb_template=”1″] Average credit card APRs are up .1% from earlier in month to 15.1% after averaging a meager .04% change over the past year. The figure is also up substantially on the year ago figure of 14.9. This follows a relatively lengthy period of APR stagnation since the holiday months. Typically, card…

UPG plc acquired Accept Cards Limited and Accept Card Rentals Limited. The Accept Cards business does not provide card processing services direct – instead it works independently of acquirers, in partnership with merchants to match their specific card processing requirements to the acquirer best suited to their needs. The Accept Cards business has a significant number of excellent partnership relationships with membership organisations, professional practices and independent banks to provide a best in class service to their clients. UPG is one of the UK’s largest independent Payment Gateway and Payment Service Providers (PSP). The company serves merchants of all sizes directly and through the gateway services provided to a number of other independent PSP’s.

Digital River is set to host a free webinar to help businesses learn how to drive online revenue growth with Google Shopping, formerly known as Google Product Listing Ads (PLAs). The webinar, “The Power of Google Shopping,” is now open for registration (http://driv.ws/2d) now. The webinar will be led by Mahmood Khan, senior program manager for strategic marketing at Digital River. Mahmood will be joined by a guest speaker from a multi-national branded manufacturer. Working with Digital River, this branded manufacturer launched a Google Shopping campaign that drove an 115 percent increase in quarter-over-quarter online revenue.

payLo by Virgin Mobile will offer customers an affordable choice for domestic unlimited voice or unlimited texting at just $20 per month exclusively at Walmart. With affordable devices and value-driven monthly plans, payLo offers customers two exclusive $20/month offers. payLo provides a reliable and affordable wireless phone that helps them to be responsible wireless consumers”without breaking the bank and without a contract. Walmart customers can also choose the existing $30 Talk & Text plan or the $40 Unlimited Talk & Text plan. Additional minutes, messages and data will be available at existing rates of $0.10/min, $0.15 for text messages, $0.25 for picture messages and $1.50/MB for web access.

The Bango Payment Platform is now available to selected digital merchants. From today, best in class, “app store quality” payments are available beyond the app stores, to mobile websites and HTML5 web apps.

Simple account now offer a better banking experience with quick and easy money transfers. Moving money to External Accounts takes just one business day. Some banks charge a fee for transferring your money to external accounts, and only offer accelerated transfers at a premium. External transfers to and from Simple will remain free for customers, who can quickly link a new External Account in our iOS or web apps to schedule transfers from web, iOS, and Android apps.

Tripwire risk-based security and compliance management solutions, announced Ken Westin, security researcher for Tripwire, will present at ToorCamp 2014. Westin has researched how organized crime rings, including those with connections to Russian and Eastern European groups, generate revenue through credit card theft. These groups profit through shoplifting, identity theft credit card skimming and other forms of fraud. Westin will discuss several cybercriminal cases he helped crack and attendees will learn key elements of the credit card black market. the connection between credit cards and the exploit market and how stolen credit cards fuel other forms of retail fraud.

CoinVoxis selecting BitPay as its official wallet and payment processor. Coinvox nonpartisan digital donation platform for political organizations, is integrating with BitPay in an effort to define the new landscape in which digital currencies such as Bitcoin can be used for political campaign elections. BitPay will allow CoinVox to expand into the future beyond the midterm elections and into international politics and causes. CoinVox is now open for business to candidates and organizations interested in soliciting and accepting digital currency through its platform.

Fiserv announced today that United Credit Union has selected the CUnify account processing platform from Fiserv. United will add CheckFree RXP from Fiserv and the Popmoney person-to-person (P2P) payment service. United chose CUnify for its reliability and state-of-the-art relational database foundation to streamline workflows, improve overall performance and provide seamless payments integration. The changing payment preferences of the members at United indicated the need for electronic personal payments capabilities. New to members, United will offer the ability to make person-to-person payments via Popmoney, which was selected for its security and ease of use. Following implementation, members will have the ability to securely send, receive and request money to/from individuals for purposes such as making a last-minute rent payment, sending money to a family member in an emergency, or paying a small business or service provider upon completion of a project.

Raphaels Bank Card Services has appointed Emily Utton Senior Relationship Manager and Alex Reddish as Relationship Manager. The appointments round off a rapid period of growth for the Raphaels Bank Card Services team which has tripled in size in just 18 months. Emily Utton has joined Raphaels Bank after five years at Paypoint, where she was an Account Manager, looking after the energy sector. Prior to that, she was Account Manager at the Home Retail Group. Although Emily is new to prepaid, she has extensive experience as a relationship manager in the payments industry. Joining Emily, Alex Reddish has joined the team as Relationship Manager, moving after two years as Relationship Manager at Ukash. He has a long family history in prepaid and did his final dissertation, at Roehampton University, on the future of prepaid. Meanwhile, Janet Johnston has expanded her role as Head of Operations to include Relationship Management. Janet has been with Raphaels for three years, initially heading up Operations.

Worldpay picked up about 48 million potential users in a recent deal with Wix. Under terms of the deal, Wix, a web development platform, will work with Worldpay, a specialist in payment processing, risk management and alternative payments, to provide a payment solution to meet the demands of its expanding international user base.